Organizers Expecting 2,000 At Reunion Of Black Students

LEESBURG — More than 2,000 former students of two Leesburg schools that helped shape the future of blacks throughout the days of segregation are expected to attend a four-day reunion July 10-13.

Organizers of the reunion have spent the past year searching through stacks of old photos, yearbooks and other mementos to re-establish a cultural identity that was lost when the Lake County Training Center, built on Washington Street in 1922, was razed in 1954; and when Carver Heights High School, built in 1954 on Beecher Street, became an integrated Leesburg Junior High School in 1968.

Next year, Leesburg Junior High will become Carver Middle School.

Louise Arthur, who attended the old training school and graduated in 1956 from Carver Heights, said more than 500 reservations already have been made for the event, to be held at the All American Cheerleading Academy in Fruitland Park.

The reunion is the first for either school, Arthur said.

She said planning committees are trying to recapture the sense of pride and accomplishment black people worked hard to obtain.

''It will carry us back,'' she said of a booklet being pieced together by a publication committee. ''Kids who come to the reunion will get a real history lesson.''

A tendency to reminisce while sorting through old photos has added more time than what was anticipated to produce the booklet, said Olivia Crawford, who graduated from the training school in 1945 and came back to teach there in 1949.

''I'm getting more excited by the minute,'' said Crawford, who retired from teaching in 1982. ''It's hard not to stop and talk about old times.''

Pleasant memories tend to offset the bad ones, Arthur said. She said many students, including herself, grew tired of the uphill battle for racial equality.

Arthur said if it had not been for Carver Heights principal P.E. Williams, she would have quit school her junior year. ''He encouraged me to finish school when I was really depressed,'' she said. ''He was a great principal. He pushed for education.''

Anyone interested in attending can write to LCTS/CHHS Homecoming, P.O. Box 2423, Leesburg 32749-2423. Checks for $25, which will cover all activities, should be made payable to LCTS/CHHS Homecoming.

Events include a social hour July 10, a banquet and fashion show July 11, a parade and dance the next day, and a morning worship service July 13.